Judy Rushin at C For Courtside

Siren Filings is about the voices of women, beautiful and dangerous, in the form of documents submitted to reveal an unseen force. The Greek mythological Sirens stand for the patriarchal trope of the female voice as alluring but dangerous, even deadly. Much like the rhyming “iron filings” that encircle and point to invisible force fields, so these drawings are responsive and revealing of forces such as labor practices, patriarchy, and the voices that shape politics and identity, and those that are absent. The show is curated by Eleanor Aldrich. There will be an opening reception on September 7, from 7:30pm to 10:00pm.

This show contains the work of four women. FSU Art Associate Professor Judy Rushin‘s work takes on “work” as labor, and is presented in context of a towel hand woven for daily use in the early 1840’s by Barbara Lahr in the same time and environment that Karl Marx was being forced to leave.

Tatiana Istomina’s series “Philosophy of the Encounter” (in collaboration with Mona Sharma for the soft sculptures and puppets) speculates on the overlooked contributions of Hélène Rytman – the wife and murder victim of prominent French philosopher Louis Althusser — to her husband’s work. Istomina’s series “Image with Caption” presents 16 different views of the young daughter of Stalin sitting on the lap of the Lavrenty Beria- the head of the Soviet secret police. Each work focuses on a different part of the image or caption.

Mona Sharma’s work for her series Manifest is disconcertingly smooth for the tensions of its content. Similarly, her travel documents adhere to familiar formal bureaucratic structures that are an uncomfortable framework for the texts that push against it.

Where: C for Courtside, 513 Cooper St, Knoxville, TN 37917

When: September 7 – 14